The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday (June 8)said it was delaying flights to New York City-area and Philadelphia airports owing to decreased visibility due to smoke drifting from Canada wildfires. The agency said that flights into New York City’s LaGuardia Airport were being delayed with an average of 54 minutes.
Flights at nearby Newark Liberty Airport were also getting delayed due to visibility issues. The FAA has warned that it may also need to decide to delay traffic into Washington and Charlotte, North Carolina. Earlier, the FAA had temporarily halted flights to LaGuardia and Philadelphia from the US northeast, Ohio and Mid-Atlantic.
United Airlines announced that it was waiving change fees and fair difference for travellers wanting to reschedule trips on Thursday and Friday (June 9) for cities that are impacted by smoky conditions including New York, Buffalo, Washington, Philadelphia, Syracuse, New York, Hartford, Connecticut, and Columbus, Ohio.
Latest on wildfires
Authorities across Canada are facing logistical challenges as they juggle resources and call in reinforcements from abroad. These included more than 1000 firefighters from Australia, the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Spain and Portugal.
Wildfires are common in Canada each year but this time the situation is being described as ‘unprecedented’. There are wildfires in almost every Canadian province.
“The distribution of fires from coast to coast this year is unusual,” said Michael Norton, an official with Canada’s Natural Resources ministry as quoted by AFP.
“At this time of year, fires usually occur only on one side of the country at a time, most often in the West.”
Millions of hectares of land have been scorched due to the wildfires till now and major Canadian cities are threatened leading to evacuation of thousands of residents.
Normally, Canada’s 10 provinces are responsible for managing wildfires within their borders. They get help from Canadian Interagency Fire Centre.
Alberta, Nova Scotia and Quebec have also asked Ottawa to send in the military.
To tackle wildfires this time, military’s firefighting capabilities are being expanded. They have an uphill battle ahead of them.
“When a big fire is burning, it is impossible for the firefighters to make a direct attack,” explains Marc-Andre Parisien, a specialist in fire risk management. He was quoted by AFP.
And then “sending water bombers to douse flames 30 metres high is like spitting on a campfire, it is ineffective,” he said.
One solution is to use controlled burns to halt advancing blazes, but with big fires, “only a big rain” will extinguish them.
(With inputs from agencies)
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